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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

As I have previously
discussed, I’m a big fan of cooking pancakes in the muffin tin. You don’t have
to worry about that whole flipping thing or trying to keep some hot while you
cook up another batch so that everyone can chow down together. Plus, mini
muffin sized pancakes are a fun way to break out of the breakfast meal doldrums.

For this version, I’ve
employed blue cornmeal. The inspiration for its use came from a recent article
for Vegetarian Times magazine that I wrote about this heirloom variety
of corn. It turns out that the pigment which makes blue cornmeal, well, blue is
the same type of anthocyanin antioxidant found in blueberries that has food
researchers scurrying to unravel all of its health-boosting properties. Plus,
blue corn is not yet genetically modified unlike its yellow brethren.

To make these
pancakes, I used the excellent medium grind blue cornmeal from Bob’s Red Mill to
give them some nice texture.

Of course, my girlfriend would say that no pancake
recipe is complete without a generous topping of blueberries and dark maple
syrup.

Blue Cornmeal
Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat
pastry flour

1/2 cup blue
cornmeal

1 teaspoon baking
powder

1/2 teaspoon baking
soda

1/2 teaspoon
cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 cup skim milk

2 tablespoons
coconut palm sugar or other granulated sugar of choice

2 tablespoons oil of
choice or melted butter

Blueberries

Pure Maple Syrup

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, stir together wheat flour,
cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl,
lightly beat egg and stir in milk, sugar and oil. Add wet ingredients to the dry
ingredients and mix until everything is moist. Divide mixture among 20 mini sized
greased or paper lined muffin cups and bake for 15 minutes, or until a
toothpick inserted into the center of a pancake comes out clean. Let cool for a
few minutes before unmolding.